Wichita eagle., 1887-05-20
BUILDING MATERIAL.
Interview with a Contractor and Lumber
Agent.

"To get respectable idea of Wichlta's
building boom one must 60 to the various
freight depots and size up the daily delivery
of building MATERIAL said one Of Wichitas
contractors yesterday. Just look at the
Fort Scott yards. The upper and lower
wards and Wichita street and all that nelgn-
borhood amt sufficient territory to supply
the company in handling material All
night long cars unloaded the day before are
being taken out of the yard and new car
loads take their place. Material by the train
load arrives every night and the company
can't deliver as fast as the demand. The
same thing is repeated by the Santa Fe, W.
g. W. Frisco, and in fact all the roads that
have ANYTHING to do with Wichita. The ma
terial is arriving, of course, very fast, but
not near as rapidly as isearnestly desired by
tho builders. A man does well to get his
material a month after ordered. Some of
orr people ordered material some weeks ago
and it has not arrived. As an example, the
stock yards company long time since or
dered building. material The LUMBER
company engaged to get the material nave
always been prolific in promises and hopes
when any of the members OF the s0ocA
yards company were present ana the iiiahy
weeks of patiently waiting has been reward
ed with one car load Of cedar posts from Wis
consin. Verify, in this case, the mountains
are in labor and mouse is brought forth.
There seems to be good prospect for the
stock yards company to get some more pos0s
and general building material sometime, but
not in the near future. Their experience Is
duplicated by many in the city desiring 10
build Some claim that a man can get ma
rial much quicker by slyly administering
little Doodle occasionally. 1t is claimed by
some that the Doodle boys always get there
first. no matter when orders come in. Some
fellows kick on the Doodle plan, and think 1t
is sufficient to pay big price for material
without any Doodle account"
Concerning the wonderful building boom
in the city an agent for a northern lumber
company who works the state for his COM
pany stated yesterday that he had been IN
all the booming towns and many OF
the slow ones in the state, and
no one buys anyway near the
amount of lumber that Wichita does. I'm
fact,n he said, 81 don't believe man can
find half dozen cities or towns in the state
that uses as much lumber as Wichita. The
lumber companies can't get enough OF 1t IN
the city. Just get up early some morning
and visit a lumber yard in Wichita. There
will, be o'clock in the morning, rot less
than twenty-five teams waiting for the gate
to be thrown open all waiting their turns.
Some wagons reach the lumber yards by
4:30 in the morning in order to
get their load first. Such
the rush in Wichita and not to be found in
any other city in the state, or the union for
that matter.
In talking with a gentleman connected
with one of the stone companies in the city,
he stated that the new railroads were making
it possible to get better and cheaper build
ing stone to the city than had ever before
been secured. The new quarries reached are
nearer and cur building people will not be
compelled to wait for stone SO long. This
feature for the near future he thought very
acceptable one for Wichita.